EU court upholds decision not to recognize intellectual property right to well-known clothing brand. “In December 2014, Rihanna was a world-famous pop star.”

Brussels –​ Rihanna and Puma, a well-known face and a famous brand at the center of a European dispute: on the one hand, the sporting goods and clothing manufacturer that wants to register a footwear model in the European single market and protect it from imitations; on the other, the pop star and her style the make the company’s efforts futile.

 The European Union Office for Intellectual Property (EUIPO) rejected Puma’s request to register a line of shoes, and the reason is the well-known shows of the singer. Twelve months before Puma filed the registration application, Rihanna had worn footwear showing an earlier design having the same characteristics as the registered design. That was enough for the rejection of the application.

The EU court confirmed this stance, also in light of the media coverage. Photos of Rihanna wearing the shoes were in various articles in online newspapers. Again, images circulated on the Instagram account ‘badgalriri’ “make it possible to identify, with the naked eye or by enlarging those photos, all the features of the prior design from various angles.“​ The Puma shoes, in short, are not original as they are very similar to a model already placed on the market, as the singer shows.

The appeal by the well-known brand, which, among others, has dressed Italy’s national soccer team, is therefore dismissed. The Luxembourg judges rejected Puma’s arguments that no one took interest in Rihanna’s shoes in December 2014 and that nobody therefore perceived the prior design. It is impossible given the dissemination on the internet and via social media, and since “in December 2014, Rihanna was a world-famous pop star.” Puma can still appeal to the EU Court of Justice.